MXPA99004572A

MXPA99004572A - Improved system and method for processing object-based audiovisual information.

Info

Publication number: MXPA99004572A
Application number: MXPA99004572A
Authority: MX
Inventors: Eleftheriadis Alexandros
Original assignee: At & T Corp
Priority date: 1997-10-15
Filing date: 1998-04-28
Publication date: 2005-07-25
Also published as: US20010051950A1

Abstract

Audiovisual data storage is enhanced using an expanded physical object table utilizing an ordered list of unique identifiers for a particular object for every object instance of an object contained in segments of a data file. Two object instances of the same object in the same segment have different object identifiers. Therefore, different instances of the same object use different identification and the different object instances may be differentiated from one another for access, editing and transmission. The necessary memory required for randomly accessing data contained in files using the expanded physical object table may be reduced by distributing necessary information within a header of a file to simplify the structure of the physical object table. In this way, a given object may be randomly accessed by means of an improved physical object table/segment object table mechanism.

Description

SYSTEM. ¥ IMPROVED METHOD FOR PROCESSING AUDIOVISUAL INFORMATION BASED ON OBJECTS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The invention relates to the processing of information, and more particularly to the storage and advanced retrieval of audiovisual data objects according to the MPEG-4 standard, which includes the use of an Expanded physical objects table that includes a list of local object identifiers. 2. Description of the Related Art As the rapid increase in demand for network, multiple media, databases and other digital capacity begins, many multiple media encoding and storing schemes have evolved. Graphic files have been encoded and stored for a long time in commonly available file formats such as TIF, GIF, JPG and others, as well as motion video in Cinepak, Indeo, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, and other formats archive. The audio files have been encoded and stored in RealAudio, WAV, MIDI and other file formats. These standard technologies have advantages for certain applications, but with the advent of large networks REF. : 30191 including the Internet, the requirements have only been .incremented for efficient coding, storage and transmission of audiovisual information (AV). The particular moving video frequently records the available Internet and other bandwidth of the system when it operates under conventional coding techniques, giving a cut video output that has dropped frames and other artifacts. This is partly because these techniques depend on the frame-by-frame coding of all the monolithic scenes, which results in data streams of megabits per second representing those frames. This makes it more difficult to reach the goal of delivering the video or audio content in real time or in the form of unidirectional flow, and allow the editing of the resulting audiovisual scenes. In contrast to the flows of data communicated through a network, the content available in random access mass storage facilities (such as AV files stored in hard drives) provide additional functionality and sometimes higher speed, but still face growing capacity needs. In particular, by taking advantage of the random access features of the physical storage medium, it is possible to allow direct access to, and edit of, arbitrary points within a graphic scene description or other audiovisual object information. In addition to random access for direct playback purposes, such functionality is useful in the editing operations in which it is desired to extract, modify, reinsert or otherwise process a particular elementary stream of a file. In conjunction with the development of PEG-4 coding and storage techniques, it is desirable to provide an improved ability to effect random access of audiovisual objects within video sequences. The opportunity of random access to the flow line would highlight and reinforce the potential of the advanced capabilities provided by the MPEG-4, and mitigate the demands that these capabilities may impose on resources. Part of the method that underlies the MPEG-4 format is that a video sequence consists of a sequence of related scenes separated in time. Each image is comprised of a set of audiovisual objects that can undergo a series of changes such as translations, rotations, scaling, brightness in color variations, etc., from one scene to the next. New objects can enter a scene and existing objects can come out, leaving only certain objects in certain images. When scene changes occur, the entire scene and all objects that comprise the image can be rearranged or initialized. One of the identified functionalities of the MPEG-4 is the improved temporary random access, with the ability to efficiently perform the random access of data within the audiovisual sequence in a limited time, and with parts of fine resolution (for example, pictures or objects). Improved temporal random access techniques compatible with MPEG-4 involve interactivity based on content that requires not only the ability to perform conventional random access, access to individual images, but also the ability to access regions or objects inside a scene. Although the MPEG-4 file format described in US Patent Application No. 09/055933 filed on April 7, 1998, entitled "System and Method for Processing Object-Based Audiovisual Information" realizes such advantages, that method includes at least two disadvantages promoted in part on the reliability of that file format on a standard physical object table (POT) and a segmented object table structure (SOT). The first problem occurs when there are multiple instances of the same object in the same data segment. In the SOT, different cases of the same object use the same object identification (OBID). Therefore, there is no way to use the MPEG- of the main flow to access the different cases of the object from the POT because in the data field used as the access key, that is, the OBID, is identical. The second problem is that the structure of the POT / SOT does not recognize the possibility that object identifiers, OBID, can be reused. The POT does not include a list of temporary changes' that the OBID assumes. Therefore, although the MPEG-4 represents a powerful and flexible object-based standard for audiovisual processing, improvements are desirable.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention overcomes those and other problems in the art and is related to improved audiovisual coding and storage technique, related to MPEG-4, by introducing an improved format that includes an expanded physical object table which uses an "Ordered list" of unique identifiers for a particular object for each case of the object, Therefore, using the invention, two cases of the object of the same object in the same segment can be separately identified In this way, among other advantages , the different cases of the identical object can be differentiated from each other.

The term "ordered" denotes here that all protocol data of the adaptation layer (AL PDU) of the same object case are placed in the file in their natural order of appearance, or order of coding.An additional benefit of the invention is that the case of a given object can change its local identifier in time and still be randomly accessible by means of an improved POT / SOT mechanism The invention in one aspect relates to a data composition method in a file, and a means for storing that file, the file includes a file header containing information of the physical object and information of the logical object, and generating a sequence of audiovisual segments, each of which includes a plurality of audiovisual objects. physical and information of the logical object contains indicators to access the audiovisual segments In another aspect the invention provides a method corresponding to extract data from a file, including access to a file that has a header which contains information of the physical object and information of the logical object, and have access to the individual segments contained in it. In another aspect the invention provides a system for processing a data file that includes a processing unit and a storage unit connected to the processing unit, the storage unit stores a file that includes a file header and a sequence of audiovisual segments. The header of the file contains information on the physical object and information of the logical object, and the information on the physical object contains indicators to access the audiovisual segments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like elements are designated by similar numbers and in which: Figure 1 illustrates a file format structure for stored files (with segments containing the AL PDU) according to a first illustrative embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 illustrates a file format structure for unidirectional flow files (with segments containing the FlexMux PDU) according to a second illustrative embodiment of the invention; Figure 3 illustrates an apparatus for storing audiovisual objects for audiovisual terminals according to the invention; Figure 4 illustrates an apparatus for extracting stored and accessible audiovisual data according to the invention; Figure 5 illustrates the format of the EPOT used in the first illustrative embodiment of the invention; Figure 6 illustrates a data access algorithm performed in relation to the first illustrative embodiment of the invention; Figure 7 illustrates the format of the FPOT used in the second illustrative embodiment of the invention; Figure 8 illustrates a data access algorithm performed in connection with the second illustrative embodiment of the invention; Figure 9 illustrates the memory format used in conjunction with the FPOT according to the second illustrative embodiment of the invention; Figure 10 illustrates the file format of a local POT (LPOT) used in the third illustrative embodiment of the invention; Figure 11 illustrates the file structure based on the LPOT illustrated in Figure 10 according to the third illustrative embodiment of the invention; and Figure 12 illustrates a data access algorithm performed in connection with the third illustrative embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED MODALITIES The invention will be described in terms of illustrative modalities in which there is access to audiovisual data from, and producing, file structures to be used in the data streams configured according to the MPEG-4 format. Additional description of that format is made in the co-pending US application Serial No. 09/055933, filed on April 7, 1998, the description of which is incorporated herein by reference. Figure 1 illustrates the stored format used in re-l-ac-ion-with a first illustrative embodiment of the invention for MPEG-4 files. Although the present invention is described illustratively according to the stored format, the invention is not limited to its use with stored files. The present invention can be used for example directly with unidirectional flow files. The stored format supports random access of AV objects. Accessing an AV object randomly by the object number involves inspecting the table AL PDU 190 of a file segment 30 by the OBID. If the OBID is found, the corresponding PDU 60 is retrieved. Since an access unit can span more than one PDU 60, it is possible for the requested object to be encapsulated in more than one PDU 60. To retrieve all OF the PDUs 60 that constitute the requested object, all AL PDUs 60 with The requested OBID is examined and recovered until an AL PDU 60 with the first set of bits is found. The first bit of an AL PDU 60 indicates the beginning of an access unit. If the ID is not found, the table of the AL PDU 190 is examined in the next segment. All the segments of the AL PDU 60 are listed in the table of the AL PDU 190. This format allows more than one object (case) with the same ID to be present in the same flow segment. It is assumed that the PDUs 60 of the same OBID are placed in the file in their natural time order (or appearance). The invention involves altering the structure of the POT to provide a table of expanded physical objects (EPOT). As illustrated in Figure 5, the format of the EPOT 500 includes a counter (COUNT) 510 of the objects in the EPOT. For each object contained in the POT, the EPOT also contains a count of the different instances of the object within the file (ICOUNT) 520, a list of the local OBID (LLOBID) 530, an object profile / level (OPL) 540 and a list of positions in the file of the first segment of the logical object case (FSLOI) 550. The LLOBID 530 is replaced by the OBID in the MPEG-4 standard and the FSLOI 550 is replaced by the first segment of the case of the FSOI object in the MPEG-4 standard. Now will the data access algorithm that uses the operation of the EPOT 500 in relation to Figure 6 be described?) The data access algorithm inspects the physical object table EPOT 500 that corresponds to the first element of the list of identifiers of Local objects (LLOBID) 530 in step 600. The list of positions in the file for the first segment of the object case (FSLOI) 550 associated with the first element of the list of local object identifiers (LLOBID) 530 is then penetrated in step 605. The next segment displacement (NSOFF) is set equal to the position of the FSLOI 550 of the first object in step 610. A position of the indicator is then increased to the next segment displacement position (NSOFF) in the step 615. The current list of object identifiers (CURRLOBID) is set equal to the list of local object identifiers (LLOBID) 530 in step 620. The algorithm then inspects the table of segment objects (SOT) corresponding to the current list of object identifiers (CURRLOBID) in step 625. The displacement of the local segment (LSOFF) and the size of the local AL PUD (LUS) 195 are located in step 630 and the local segment shift (LSOFF) and size data of the local AL PDU (LUS) 195 are penetrated in step 635. Subsequently the AL PDU 60 in segment 30 is loaded and processed in step 640. In the step 645, the continuity identifiers (CF) are analyzed grammatically to determine if the object is completely contained in an AL PDU 60 or if the AL PDU 60 is the first section, last section, or middle section of an object in step 650. If continuity identifiers denote that the end of the object has been reached, the current list of object identifiers (CURRLOBID) is incremented to the next element contained within EPOT LOBID 530 in step 655 and the algorithm ends in step 660 Alternatively, the algorithm has access to the next segment shift '(NSOFF) in step 665 returns to step 615 to increase the position of the indicator to the NSOFF. With this operation using the expanded physical objects table (EPOT) 500, the random access of the AV object data can be in a unidirectional flow by removing the search mechanism of the segmented object table (SOT). The EPOT 500 can be extended further to include the displacements directly to the data objects instead of starting in the segment containing the objects by means of the following variable object displacement (NOFF) and the size of the local AL PDU (LUS) 195 variable. The AL PDU LUS 195 has not previously been used as a control variable during data transmission; however, using the AL PDU LUS as a variable during data transmission, a data receiving unit is able to recognize whether it has enough available memory to store the received data and if they have been received. file format 200 such as that illustrated in Figure 3. Figure 3 illustrates an apparatus for processing an MPEG-4 file for its reproduction. according to the invention. In the apparatus illustrated in Figure 3, the MPEG-4 files 100 are stored in a storage medium, such as a hard disk or a CD ROM, which is connected to an interface or file format interconnect 200 capable of controlling programmed of the audiovisual information, which includes the processing flow illustrated in Figure 6.) In a second exemplary embodiment of the invention, an additional expanded EPOT is provided, denoted as FPOT 700 for a "fat" POT. As shown in Figure 7, the format of the FPOT 700 includes a counter ^ - ,, t (COUNT) 710 of the objects in the FPOT. The FPOT 700 also contains a count of the different cases of the object within the file (ICOUNT) 720 and a list of local object identifiers (LLOBID) 730. The FPOT 700 also contains, for each object entry, a profile / level of object (OPL) 740, a list of positions in the file of the first case of the object (FLOI) 750, a table of the following object displacements (NOFF) 745 and sizes of the local PDUs (LUS) 760 in relation to each segment. Now we will describe the data access algorithm that uses the operation of the FPOT 700 in relation to the data inspected corresponds to the first element of the ID of the local object (LLOBID) 730 in step 800. The list of positions in the file for the first case of the object (.FLOI) 750 associated with the first element of the LLOBID 730 and the associated LUS 760 are penetrated in step 805. A position 'of an indicator is increased to the location of the first case of the object (FLOI) 750 in step 810 and data of the LUS 760 are named in step 815. Next, the PDUs 60 in the segment are loaded and processed in step 820.. In step 825, the continuity identifiers are analyzed grammatically to determine if the. object is completely contained in the PDU 60 or if the PDU 60 is the first section, the last section, or a middle section of an object during step 830. If the continuity identifier denotes that the end of the object has been reached , the algorithm ends in step 835. Alternatively, if the continuity identifiers have not reached the end of the object, the algorithm is relocated to the next object displacement (NOFF) 745 and the size of the process definition unit the adaptation layer (AL PDU LUS) 760 is determined in step 840. Subsequently, the algorithm returns to step 810 to increase the position of the indicator to the next place in the first case of the object (FLOI) 750 and subsequently accesses the LUS 760 The flow of the processing illustrated in Figure 8 can be controlled by an interface or file format interconnection 200 such as that illustrated by j? n Figure 3. The performance for MPEG-4 data access is thus faster according to the invention, because all the information necessary to access the objects is contained in the FPOT. Such a method also simplifies a retrospective search (inverse displacement) because all the information needed to access the objects is contained in the FPOT. In this way, the implementation using the FPOT structure is the preferred way to avoid files. In addition, the FPOT simplifies the conversion of files into a basic unidirectional flow file with or without data access via sequential data scanning based on the segment start codes (SSC).

In terms of the data structure, the data after the FPOT 700 is a concation of the AL PDU 60. The format illustrated in the Figure 9 is memory oriented and requires a large amount of memory for the FPOT. However, the format allows easy, on-the-fly separation of data access information (ie, FPOT entries) and object data (that is, AL PDUs). Therefore, the data access information and the data of the objects can be sent over a network with different priorities. When it is not required to index the information in the receiver (which is usually the case for most applications), the data access information does not need to be transmitted at all. In a third illustrative embodiment of the present invention, an additional structure is used for the more efficient administration of the FPOT 700 of the second illustrative embodiment. In some cases an FPOT requires extensive memory resources and creates problems with a CPU. For example, in mobile units that contain scarce CPU / memory resources, the use of the FPOT structure can be difficult. In this way, simplifying the FPOT structure by distributing the following object deviation (NOFF) 745 and LUS 760 together with the data of the AL PDU 60 is beneficial.

The next segmented offset of the distributed object (DNOFF) contains information of the offset value required for the placement of the first AL PDU 60 in the next segment. In the file structure according to the third illustrative embodiment, an additional structure is used, denoted as LPOT (local POT) ?? '??. In this structure, illustrated in the Figure e ^ field of DNOFF 1110 is the first field before the first AL PDU 60 of the object to which DNOFF 1110 refers. The field of Distributed LUS (DLUS) 1160 follows DNOFF 1110. More details of the structure of the LPOT 1000 are shown in the Figure 10, with the file structure V .. corresponding to that shown in Figure 11. The data access via the LPOT 1000, DNOFF 1110 and DLUS 1160 can be effected, for example, by means of a data access algorithm by manipulating the load and processing of the PDU 60 on the basis of the following distributed segmented offset (DNOFF) 1110. Now the data access operation using the structures of the LPOT 1000, DNOFF 1110 and DLUS 1160 of the third illustrative mode will be described in relation to Figure 12. - The table of physical objects LPOT 1000 corresponding to the first element of the LOBID is searched in step 1200. Subsequently, the value of DNOFF 1110 is set equal to FLOI 1050 in step 1205. The position of the indicator is increased to the location of DNOFF 1110 in step 1210 and the DLUS data 1160 are entered in step 1215. The PDUs 60 in the segment are loaded and processed in step 1220. The continuity identifiers (GFs) are analyzed grammatically in the 1225 to determine if the object is completely contained in the AL PDU or if the AL PDU is the first section, the last section or a middle section of an object in step 1230. If the continuity identifiers denote that the At the end of the object, the algorithm ends in step 1235 *. Alternatively, the algorithm has access to the DNOFF in step 124 ?, returns to step 1205 and sets the value of the DNOFF equal to the FLOI. The flow of the processing illustrated in Figure 12 can be controlled by an interface or interconnection of file format 200 such as the above description of the system, the method and the means to process audiovisual information of the invention is illustrative, and will occur to you variations in construction and implementation to those skilled in the art. For example, data access can be effected in a similar way via sequential data scan (SSCA) based on the segment start codes (SSC), segment size (SS) and the next segmented offset of the distributed object (DNOFF) and the distributed LUS (DLUS) of the third illustrative modality. The access to the data using the segment would be faster to locate segments of the object but slower to indicate the LOBID that requires the grammatical analysis of the AL PDU. Therefore, it is intended that the scope of the invention be limited only by the following claims.

It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention.

Claims

CLAIMS Having described the invention as above, the content of the following claims is claimed as property: 1. A method for composing data in a file, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: generating a file header, the file header contains information of the physical object and information of the logical object; generate a sequence of audiovisual segments, each audiovisual segment comprises a plurality of audiovisual objects; and to associate the audiovisual objects with the information of the physical object, where the information of the physical object contains indicators to have access to the audiovisual segments. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the information of the physical object comprises a "fat" physical object table having entries containing indicators for the access information, the access information is used to access the audiovisual objects in each audiovisual segment, the audiovisual objects are associated with the entries in the fat physical objects table. 3. The method of compliance with the claim 1, characterized in that the audiovisual segment contains a segmented object table that has entries containing indicators for the access information, the access information is used to access the audiovisual objects in each audiovisual segment; and the physical object information comprises an expanded physical object table that has entries containing indicators to access the segmented object table. 4. The method of compliance with the claim 2, characterized in that it also comprises the step of using the fat physical object table to transfer references to the audiovisual objects in the directions of the local media when the information of the physical object indicates that the local media data are present. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that it also comprises the step of using the expanded physical object table and the segmented object table to translate references to the audiovisual objects in the directions of the local media when the information of the physical object indicates that the local media data is present. 6. The method in accordance with the claim 2, characterized in that it also comprises the step of using the information of the logical object to transfer references to the audiovisual objects in remote data calls, when the information of the logical object indicates, that remote data are present. 7. The method of compliance with the claim 3, characterized in that it also comprises the step of using the information of the logical object to transfer references to the audiovisual objects in remote data calls, when the information of the logical object indicates that remote data are present. 8. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the audiovisual objects are accessible over a network or based on a unidirectional flow. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the audiovisual objects are accessible from a mass storage medium. 10. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the file is an MPEG-4 file. 11. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the audiovisual objects are produced from different sources. 12. The method in accordance with the claim 1, characterized in that the audiovisual objects are randomly accessible. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that each segmented object table comprises an audiovisual object ID field that stores identifications of individual audiovisual objects and the access information for each audiovisual object. 14. The method according to the claim 2, characterized in that the fat physical object table comprises an ID field of audiovisual objects that stores identifications of individual audiovisual objects and the access information for each audiovisual object. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the access information comprises displacement information, continuity information, size information and counting information for the audiovisual objects. 16. The method of 'compliance with the claim 1, characterized in that the sequence of audiovisual segments comprises a termination segment indicating the end of the file. 17. The method of compliance with the claim 2, characterized in that the audiovisual objects comprise accessible protocol data units through the fat physical object table. 18. The method according to claim 3, characterized by the audiovisual objects comprise | Protocol data units accessible through the segmented object table. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the file comprises screen description information of binary format for mounting the audiovisual objects in a scene. 20. A method for extracting data from a file, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: accessing a file header, the header of the file comprises information of the physical object and information of the logical object; Having access to an audiovisual segment, the audiovisual segment comprises a plurality of audiovisual objects; and have access to a sequence of audiovisual segments; where the information of the physical object contains indicators to access the audiovisual segments. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that the information of the physical object comprises a fat physical object table having entries that contain indicators for the access information, the access information is used to access the audiovisual objects; and the step of accessing the sequence of audiovisual segments is done using the entries in the fat physical objects table. 22. The method of compliance with the claim 20, characterized in that each individual segment includes a segmented object table having entries containing indicators for the access information, the access information is used to access the audiovisual objects; the physical object information comprises an expanded physical object table that has entries that contain flags to access the entries in the segmented object table; and the step of having access to the sequence of audiovisual segments is carried out using the entries in the segmented object table. 23. The method according to the claim 21, characterized in that it further comprises the step of using the fat physical object table to transfer references to the audiovisual objects to the addresses of the local means when the physical object information indicates that local media data are present. 24. The method according to claim 22, characterized in that it also comprises the step of using the expanded physical object table and the segmented object table to translate references to the audiovisual objects to the addresses of the local media when the physical object information indicates that local media are present. 25. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that it further comprises the step of using the information of the logical object to transfer references to the audiovisual objects to remote data calls, the information of the logical object indicates that remote data are present. The method according to claim 22, characterized in that it further comprises the step of using the information of the logical object to transfer references to the audiovisual objects to remote data calls, when the information of the logical object indicates that remote data are present. 27. The method of compliance with the claim 20, characterized in that it also comprises the step of assembling the audiovisual objects in a scene. 28. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that the audiovisual objects are accessible over a data network based on a unidirectional flow. 29. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that the audiovisual objects are accessible from a mass storage means; 30. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that the file is an MPEG-4 file. 31. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that it also comprises the steps of: editing the audiovisual objects; and re-establish the audiovisual objects in the file. 32. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that the audiovisual objects are produced from different origins. 33. The method of compliance with the claim 20, characterized in that the audiovisual objects are randomly accessible. 34. The method according to claim 22, characterized in that each segmented object table comprises an ID field of audiovisual objects that stores identifications of individual audiovisual objects, and the access information for each audiovisual object. 35. The method of compliance with the claim 21, characterized in that the fat physical object table comprises an ID field of audiovisual objects that stores identifications of individual audiovisual objects and the access information for each audiovisual object. 36. The method of compliance with the claim 20, characterized in that the access information comprises displacement information, continuity information, size information and counting information for the audiovisual objects. 37. The method according to the claim 20, characterized in that it further comprises the step of terminating the data extraction after reading a termination segment. 38. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that the audiovisual objects comprise accessible protocol data units through the fat physical object table. 39. The method according to claim 22, wherein the audiovisual objects comprise accessible protocol data units through the segmented object table. 40. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that the file comprises screen description information of binary format to mount the audiovisual objects in a scene. 41. A system for processing a data file, characterized in that it comprises: a processing unit; a storage unit connected to the processing unit, the storage unit stores a file comprising: a file header comprising information of physical objects and information of logical objects, and a sequence of audiovisual segments, each audiovisual segment comprises a plurality of audiovisual objects; where the information of the physical object contains indicators to access the audiovisual segments. 42. The system according to claim 41, characterized in that the information of the physical object contains a fat object table used by the system to transfer references to the audiovisual objects to the addresses of the local media when the information of the physical object indicates that local media data is present. 43. The system according to claim 41, characterized in that the information of the physical object contains a table of physical objects expanded; and each audiovisual segment contains a table of segmented objects that has entries that contain indicators for the access information, the access information is used to access the audiovisual objects in each audiovisual segment; and the system uses the expanded physical object table and the segmented object tables to translate references to the audiovisual objects to local media addresses when the physical object information indicates that local media data is present. 44. The system according to claim 41, characterized in that the system translates references to the audiovisual objects to remote data calls using a table of logical objects when the information of the logical object indicates that remote data are present. 45. The system according to claim 41, characterized in that the audiovisual objects are accessible over a network on the basis of a unidirectional flow. 46. The system according to claim 41, characterized in that the storage unit comprises a mass storage medium. 47. The system according to claim 41, characterized in that the file is an • MPEG-4 file. 48. The system according to claim 41, characterized in that the audiovisual objects are produced from different origins. 49. The system according to claim 41, characterized in that the audiovisual objects are randomly accessed from the storage unit. 50. The system according to claim 43, characterized in that the table of segmented objects comprises an ID field of audiovisual objects that stores identifications of individual audiovisual objects and access information for each audiovisual object. 51. The system according to claim 41, characterized in that the fat physical object table comprises an ID field of audiovisual objects that stores identifications of individual audiovisual objects and access information for each audiovisual object. 52. The system according to claim 41, characterized in that the access information comprises displacement information, continuity information, size information and counting information for the audiovisual objects. 53. The system according to claim 41, characterized in that the sequence of audiovisual segments comprises a termination segment indicating the end of the file. 54. The system according to claim 41, characterized in that the audiovisual objects comprise protocol data units that use the fat physical object table. 55. The system according to claim 42, characterized in that the audiovisual objects comprise accessible protocol data units using the table of expanded physical objects and the table of segmented objects. 56. The system according to claim 41, characterized in that the file comprises screen description information of binary format to mount the audiovisual objects in a scene. 57. A means for storing a data file, the data file is characterized in that it includes information to be processed by an information processing apparatus to perform the steps of: generating a first access to a file, the file comprises a file header and an audiovisual segment comprising a plurality of audiovisual objects / the file header includes information of the physical object and information of the logical object, wherein the information of the physical object contains indicators to access the audiovisual segment; and generate or have access to audiovisual objects using the information of the physical object. 58. The medium according to claim 57, characterized in that the information of the physical object comprises a fat physical object table which transfers references to the individual objects to local media addresses when the physical object information indicates that the means are present. local. 59. The medium according to claim 57, characterized in that the audiovisual segment also comprises a segmented object table that has entries containing indicators for the access information, the access information used to access the audiovisual objects, the pass to generate or have access to audiovisual objects also uses the entries in the table of segmented objects; and the physical object information comprises a table of expanded physical objects which transfers references to the audiovisual objects to local media addresses when the physical object information indicates that local media data is present. 60. The medium according to claim 57, characterized in that the header of the file comprises a table of logical objects which transfers references to audiovisual objects to remote data calls., when the logical object information indicates that remote data is present. 61. The medium according to claim 57, characterized in that the audiovisual objects are accessible over a network or on the basis of a unidirectional flow. 62. The medium according to claim 57, characterized in that the medium comprises a mass storage medium. 63. The medium according to claim 57, characterized in that the file comprises screen description information of binary format to mount the audiovisual objects in a scene.